


Phoenix

by rad_twister



Category: Lego Ninjago
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Gods & Goddesses, Canon-Typical Violence, Homelessness, Implied/Referenced Character Death, Loss of Control, M/M, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Running Away, There's Something I Haven't Told You (TM), kai accidentally goes dark side
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-06-21
Updated: 2020-06-21
Packaged: 2021-03-04 06:48:35
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,185
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24829357
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rad_twister/pseuds/rad_twister
Summary: After their parents die, the Smith siblings run away. This leads to a bunch of events that end with Kai going missing, Nya discovering her power when she's only seven years old, and the birth of a terrible spirit of flame and destruction terrorizing Ninjago.The Masters of Earth, Lightning, Ice, and Water set out on a mission to find the fire god and convince them to stop... After all, it would be pretty bad if someone with bad intentions found such a powerful being first, wouldn't it?
Relationships: Cole/Kai/Jay Walker/Zane, Nya & Jay Walker & Cole & Zane, Wu & not telling anyone anything
Comments: 1
Kudos: 55





	Phoenix

**Author's Note:**

> hooo boy, this is gonna be a long one. buckle up, folks!

The day was getting late, the sun was setting, and their parents hadn’t returned home yet. Nya held onto her brother’s hand, gazing out the window at the path that her parents should’ve walked up, coming into sight and greeting the two children brightly. They still weren’t here. They should’ve been here yesterday.

“They’re not coming back, are they?”

“No, Nya, of course they will! Don’t talk like that.” His grip on her hand tightened just a bit, eyes scanning the path endlessly. He sighed. “Are you hungry? We should go get something to eat.”

“But you can’t cook, remember? Last time you tried to make rice you made charcoal!”

“Hey!” She was right, though. “...Okay. Fine. Wanna go to ask a neighbor? I’m not letting you anywhere near the stove.”

She was too young to handle hot pans, and the very thought of her getting hurt put a sick feeling in Kai’s stomach. It pained him to think about his seven-year-old little sister crying over a burn mark that he wouldn’t even know how to treat. 

“That sounds nice,” she agreed quietly. 

With a heavy melancholy clinging to them, the two young children stepped out of the building and walked the path to a neighbor’s house. Everyone here knew everyone, and the Smith siblings trusted the old woman to provide dinner. It felt a bit rude to ask that of her, but… they were both hungry, and she was a family friend. It wouldn’t be the first time they’d spent time at her house—although in the past their parents had been with them. 

Sadness hung in her eyes when she opened the door, a few seconds after they knocked. “Hello, you two.” Her smile faded. “I heard about your parents. Come in, why don’t you?”

Nya and Kai shared a look, and followed the old woman into the house. What she said worried them, and Kai decided to ask her what she meant. “Our parents? You heard about them?” 

“What happened?”

The old woman sighed, and gestured for them to sit on a couch. “You don’t know?” she asked, stalling.

“No, we don’t.” Nya looked up at her with wide eyes. “Nobody told us anything. They haven’t come back home in over a day and we— I mean, I’m scared…”

“I’m so sorry…” the woman sat down on a chair across from them, picking up and taking a sip from the tea she’d set down when she heard the knock at her door. “But I’m afraid your parents are… they’ve gone to a place that none can return from.”

“What do you mean? Of course they can return. They’re good at nav— at navee— at not getting lost, so I’m sure they’ll be back soon. Where are they? Maybe I can go after them? It won’t be a long trip if—”

“My dear, the journey to the Departed Realm goes only one way. I’m terribly sorry. You cannot go after them.”

Kai stiffened. “No. That _can’t_ be right.”

The grief in the old woman’s expression was obviously sincere. Nya distantly heard herself let out a sob, and the world around her grew so cold and empty. Her brother wrapped an arm around her and pulled her close in hopes of comforting her, but the pain in her chest was so strong that she wondered if she was going to die, too. Nya didn’t want to believe it, but why else would they not have returned? Ray and Maya would never abandon them, and they’d promised it so many times before.

The old woman said something, and Kai started yelling, his words filled with outrage and pain and desperate denial. Nya drowned them out, deep within her own mind, and only barely registered that Kai had stood up and ran out of their kind neighbor’s house, slamming the door behind him.

Nya found herself in the embrace of the old woman, and she cried until she couldn’t anymore. The woman made her a bowl of hot soup, and she spent the night on the couch with her neighbor keeping her company and murmuring soothing words. Sleep did not come easily.

A rainstorm swept over the valley. That night, the sky wept bullets. 

———

Morning arrived, and the sunlight lit up the world in the previous storm’s wake, shining merrily on the puddles and reflecting off the dew. Kai hadn’t slept at all, and glared at the world around him. He refused to cry, because his parents obviously weren’t dead. That didn’t mean there were no problems.

See, what was the village to do if two children suddenly found themselves without parents? Someone had to adopt them. Social services, those _vultures_ , would come here and try to take the Smith siblings away and possibly even separate them into two different homes. 

What would Kai do then? For now, Nya was all he had left. He couldn’t let anyone take her. 

The two of them had to run far, far away from here, where no one would be stupid and say things like —“Your parents are dead”—and— “This loving family wants to adopt one of you, but only _one_ , so you better play _rock paper scissors_ on who’s staying homeless and who gets to be legally kidnapped”—or anything like that. 

Kai jogged back to the old woman’s home, and peeked through her window. Nya was asleep on the couch, and the old woman was in the kitchen making breakfast. He knocked on the door, and she quickly came over to open it for him. Kai didn’t even get a chance to breathe before she swept him up in a hug, said her condolences, and pleaded with him to stay long enough to have breakfast with her and his sister. 

He really couldn’t say no to that. Heck, his stomach was about to eat _itself_.

With a few minutes remaining until the food was ready, Kai gently woke Nya up. “H-hey, little sis,” he whispered.

Nya startled awake. She, too, hugged him on sight.

As much as they both needed it, he wasn’t here just to comfort her, so he gave her a gentle squeeze and pulled back, kneeling by the couch. Kai spoke in a hushed tone, quiet enough that the old woman wouldn’t hear. “I think we have to run away,” he said.

She rubbed the crust out of her reddened eyes. “What? Why?”

“We— we’re orphans, Nya. We’re kids who don’t have parents. You know what they do to kids who don’t have parents? They split them up and send them to different homes so families who feel like being nice can try to replace ours! And I don’t wanna lose you!”

“S-so we’re gonna run away? Right now?”

“I don’t see any other choice.” 

She was silent as she contemplated, but then the nice old woman came in and told them to sit at the table. The two complied, and breakfast passed by awfully silently, both sharing guilty looks as their kind neighbor mumbled to herself about what to do with the children. Neither of them were old enough to live by themselves. Kai was only nine—he was far too young to take on the responsibility of raising and taking care of his little sister _and_ running his parents’ blacksmith shop all by himself. 

Eventually, the time came when they knew they had to make a break for it. The old woman excused herself to another room to make a call, and the orphaned siblings feared she was calling someone who would do exactly what Kai worried about: take Nya some place where he’d never see her again. 

Kai stood up, wincing at how loudly the chair legs scraped against the floor. “Come on, we have to go.”

Taking a second to stuff one last bite of the bun into her mouth, Nya followed her older brother out the door. They heard the old woman call out for them to come back, and Kai grabbed his sister’s hand and broke into a run. Slipping on the mud, they didn’t stop until they made it to the center of Ignacia, if only to avoid crashing into someone on the busy street. 

“Hey, aren’t you two Ray and Maya’s kids?”

A professional-looking woman elbowed the man hard. “Their parents just passed away,” she hissed, before putting on a mask of calmness and turning to the two children. “Are you guys alright? My condolences for your loss. Actually, I’ve been meaning to talk to you about that. There’s a lot to discuss about your future, since you don’t seem to have any close relatives…”

“You’ll never catch us alive!” Kai yelled, booking it down the street in another direction as fast as his legs could carry him. He risked a glance over his shoulder. The woman gave chase, ordering others to help her. 

“It’s for your own good!” 

“NO!”

They turned a corner, only this time they didn’t stop in time before bumping into someone. 

“Kai? Nya? What’s got y’all in such a hurry?” This was coming from the father of one of Nya’s friends. He recognized them both due to how many play-dates his own daughter had with Nya Smith. 

“You there! Don’t let them get away!”

The man spared a bewildered look as the woman ran up to them, panting slightly. “What’s going on?” he asked. 

“She’s trying to kidnap us!”

“I absolutely am not! Don’t listen to them, they don’t understand the situation!”

The man protectively stepped in between the Smith siblings and the stranger from the city. “Would you mind _clearing up_ the situation, then?” he inquired coldly. 

She sighed tiredly. “They’ve just lost their parents. Ray and Maya are dead. I need to find these two a new home.”

In an instant, all hostility was gone. “Oh, that’s… oh, no.” He blinked back the sudden swell of tears. “They’re dead? What on earth happened?”

“They’re not dead! That’s a lie!” Kai screamed, and moved to flee again. Unfortunately, the man caught him by the arm before he could. “Let me go! I need to go find them!”

Nya looked back and forth between all three, slowly backing up but too hesitant to make a definitive decision. She didn’t want to leave her brother behind. 

The professionally-dressed woman caught the girl’s movements with a keen eye, and walked over to her. “Nya, was it?”

The girl nodded.

“Honey, I know this is probably a very confusing time for you… but I’m here to help, alright? I want nothing more than to see you safe. I know that nobody will be able to replace your parents, and you have every right to be upset, but I can’t leave you or your brother alone on the streets to fend for yourselves. Do you understand?”

She didn’t know what ‘fend’ meant, but she could understand the gist of what this strange woman was saying. However, that didn’t mean she _trusted_ what was being said. Nya thought about what to do next. Maybe she could qui—

A burst of flames erupted beside her. 

Both Nya and the stranger from the city jumped back, heads whipping around to look at what happened. An explosion? 

No, it was… 

Kai? 

The older of the Smith siblings glared at the man, hardly aware of the fact that his entire body was coated in flames. “Stop it,” he growled. “You’re all liars! I don’t need to be adopted! I’m fine just how I am! We _both_ are! Right, Nya?” 

Shocked, Nya nodded in agreement, and stayed frozen while the two adults fled. “Right,” she assured. “But uh.... Bro, you’re on fire!”

He looked down at himself, and yelped. “Oh, what the HECK?! What’s going on!” The flames grew. 

“Calm down! It gets worse when you yell!”

Kai took in deep breaths, watching in wide-eyed amazement as the fire died down into nothing, as if it had never happened at all. He never even felt it. Wasn’t fire supposed to hurt? What’s happening?

Around them, yelling and shouting began to grow. Words reached his ears, words that made him flinch. A demon, a curse, something unnatural and weird and something to _fear_. He was starting to panic again. 

“Get out of here!” a terrified villager demanded. 

“Get out? He’ll hurt more people. Didn’t you just see that? He’s too dangerous to be left alone!”

Kai ran. Nya was growing tired, but she did her best to keep up, feet hitting the ground and kicking up dust around them. 

A group of villagers cornered them. Kai looked around wildly for a way out, but he couldn’t see one. They were both trapped. 

“Stop it! Just let me go! I’m not dangerous, I swear! I don’t even know what happened!”

Nya clung to him, scared. How easily had these people, they’re neighbors, turned on the two? 

“What’s going on?”

“He’s possessed!”

Kai rubbed away the tears. “No, I’m not!” They didn’t listen.

“Did anyone hear how Ray and Maya died? I bet it was in a FIRE.”

The boy stilled. Anger, disbelief; a burst of violent _fury_ tore through him. 

Ignacia ignited. 

**Author's Note:**

> thanks for checking this story out! 
> 
> updates are probably gonna come slowly (if at all) for the next 31 days, because along with this WIP i've also decided to participate in TWO different month-long events, namely "Blizzard In July" and "Art Fight 2020". between the two of them i won't have much time for this story, but i promise i'll try to update as often as i can!


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